We Use More Happy Words Than Sad Words, Says Twitter Study

A new study has revealed that we use far more positive than negative words in most forms of written language, including Twitter.

Using big data methodology, a team of scientists analysed the words used in 10 languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Indonesian, Russian, Arabic, Korean and Chinese, and found that the most commonly used words in each language skewed towards the positive.

The team also developed a Twitter “happiness meter” to further measure people’s emotions, comparing them across different parts of the country. The meter revealed dips in happiness during national tragedies and spikes on holidays such as Christmas.

These findings are in contrast to “what people think when they read the paper or listen to music on the radio or read YouTube comments,” said Christopher Danforth, co-author of the study.

The research also showed that some languages, and some mediums, were more positive than others – Spanish rated top overall, with a crawl of Chinese Google Books placing last.

Check the visual below for a closer look at the study, which comes courtesy of LiveScience.

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